Thanks much for the editorial “The spying state,” in the Nov. 2 Times Argus. Our current “spying state” brings back the ghosts of the infamous McCarthy era of the early 1950s with its dreadful House Un-American Activities Committee. How the NSA, and the corporate-intelligence complex, got so far out of control and for so long, long before President Obama in fact, is beyond the scope of this letter.

We can also thank Sen. Patrick Leahy for his introduction of the bill to rein in the out-of-whack NSA. Just as Leahy knocked off Karl Rove when Mr. Rove and company were stacking district attorneys’ offices with those loyal to his (and his boss, President Bush) viewpoint, now the senator wants to do the same with an errant security apparatus, an apparatus which seems to think itself independent of our political process. This bill, which he is co-sponsoring with conservative Sen. Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, proposes to make the NSA accountable for what it gathers about us.

Vermont can be thankful that Sen. Leahy is there for us. Without him and this bill, there just might be another House Un-American Committee looming on the horizon. If anyone knows how to get something done of this magnitude in the circus which is our nation’s capital now, it is our senator. Humanity is a little better off for his work.